Koyasan first night in Japan

Hi
We are couple age 60. Our plan is to go to koyasan at our first night in Japan. We will be after 20 hours flight. The original plane was to go directly from. Osaka airport to kyoto for 5 nights. Is it sensible to do koyasan over night from Kyoto instead from Osaka? Maybe it will be after adjusting to the surrounding and less tired.
This is our first time in Japan.
I will be appreciate your opinion.
Thank you

Hi Rachel

Depending on the arrival time of your flight and the trains you're then able to take, from Kansai Airport,it'll take a minimum of about 2.5 hours to get to Koyasan and the simplest route has 2 transfers en route (others have 3 or 4)

After a 20 hour flight, with luggage in tow, I would suggest that this won't be an enjoyable experience...

I would certainly recommend going to Kyoto first instead. If you have 5 nights there, you could do an overnight trip to Koyasan during that time and then return to Kyoto via Nara so you can do some sightseeing there too.

However, even if you go to Kyoto first, you'll still have to travel to Koyasan via Osaka so another option might be to just have the first night in Osaka to recover from that long flight and then set off for Koya the next morning.

Have a great trip!

I do not know if you can get sleep on a plane, what class you fly in or what time you arrive, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

Koyasan isn't so easy to get to (~3 hours) and on your first day, you will be very tired after a long flight. Also, after you are finally on top of Koyasan, there are only buses (or a cab) and whatever temple you intend to stay at will quite likely require some walking.

I would not recommend this as your first day.

If you stay in Osaka or Kyoto makes no difference, as the cities are only 20 minutes apart by train.

Thank you for the good advices. That's what I will do. Go to koyasan after few days from kyoto.